City moves to regulate dog keeping

The campaign Tuesday to crack down on uncivilized behaviors by dog owners, such as walking dogs without a leash, taking them to forbidden public places and failing to pick up their poop.

As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, as many as 2,406 law enforcement officers had found a total of 248 cases of uncivilized behaviors and collected 191 stray dogs during the campaign. Thirty-eight of the cases resulted in a total of 24,300 yuan ($3,520) in penalties.

The bureau has enacted a series of measures to improve the management of pet dogs this year.

In May, an online dog registration platform was launched.

So far, a total of 84,569 applications have been handled on the platform since its launch, and the city has registered nearly 100,000 dogs so far.

Shenzhen said last week that all dogs in the city will have microchips implanted from the second half of this year for better management of the pets.

From January to May, the city handled 1,296 dog-related cases, filed penalties for 248 cases and collected 1,781 stray dogs through relevant law enforcement actions, the bureau said.

The city will conduct regular campaigns to manage the keeping of dogs starting in July. Residents with prohibited or dangerous breeds of dogs are required to transport them out of the city. Secretly keeping illegal breeds will result in severe punishments.

The bureau said it will work with the city's housing and construction bureau to promote the management mechanism that has been implemented at the Dingtaifenghua residential compound in Nanshan District, and to urge each district to establish a demonstration residential community for the keeping of pet dogs by the end of December.

Additionally, a demonstration site for a dog adoption and treatment center will be built based on a model from Hong Kong called SPCA at the animal hospital at Xili Zoo in Nanshan.